Parser vs. Point & Click (not just KQ)
 

Is there anyone else here who prefers the parser system to point in click? I don't just mean for KQ, but for adventure games in general.

I've never had a strong connection to one or the other.

Most of the graphical adventures I've played have used some kind of "point-and-click" interface. I don't mind the parser approach either, though.

They lend themselves to different kinds of puzzles. In a parser game you can have puzzles that require the player to come up with specific actions like holding their breath or waving their hands or singing a song, actions which would be hard to implement in a point-and-click game without making them easy, obvious dialogue or drop down menu options. Point-and-click games on the other hand lend themselves to complicated inventory manipulation and combination puzzles that are easy to understand conceptually but difficult to describe verbally. A lot of people had trouble figuring out the correct wording for the "sling rock at guard with jockstrap" puzzle from SQ2. If it were a point-and-click game, you could easily just click the rock on the jockstrap and then the jockstrap on the guard.

The way I see it, parser text is harder than P&C, you had to extrapolate from the base command "look around" to find out what to do. It definitely pushes the mind.

While I prefer P&C, I'd love to see parser text make a return purely to raise the difficulty, I'd certainly give it a shot.

Both sides have pros and cons. Parser gives the programmers a lot more freedom--instead of just one all-purpose response for clicking "hand" on an apple, there can be different responses for "touch apple", "take apple", "feel apple", "eat apple", "squeeze apple", "bounce apple", and so on. But then, it also adds challenge and difficulty for the players (and I imagine for the programmers). Challenge can be good, but guessing the right words to use can be more tedious than challenging.

While I enjoy old parser games, I can't say that I ever thought any point and click games would have been better if they had been parser instead, so I guess I have no preference.

I like both interfaces. I kind of like the feel of the parser interface, but that is probably not going to make a return :). I'm ok with any kind of point and click interface.

The main problem I see with parser is that it's really only full practical for a PC release. Sure people have keyboards for other systems, but they're not especially common. And doing both methods would take a lot of extra time so I don't see parser ever making a return.

True, but the game can be set to detect if the needed item is attached and prompt the player which they'd like to use if available. Then again, they could always do it like Larry 7 did, make it integrated into the interface (again, only if the perpheral is found). They hid some easter eggs in the game that could only be found through its use.

Right, it's the time involved with making that possible more than the actual detection itself that I don't see happening. Telltale isn't exactly known for putting more effort into their games than is needed to get them out the door.

Parser is fine as an interface as it gives plenty of options what to do, however when I'm playing older Sierra's parser games I always keep thesaurus at hand, because it makes guessing right words less frustrating. I often knew what I had to do, but didn't know which synonym was correct.

Point and click is also a good system, although I must say that I'm not particularly happy with the current trend that you can either use or look objects or even worse you have just a single cursor for everything. In old Sierra and LucasArts point and click games there was several ways to manipulate or examine the objects, some SQ games even gave you choice to smell everything which you encountered. The old system was much better, because it gave you more choice.

I'd enjoy both, to be honest. I love typing commands for games, despite never ever playing a pure text adventure for more than five minutes. But I absolutely loved it in games like Leisure Suit Larry and Police Quest. I guess for the ease of use, a point'n'click is far superior, but for possible depth and puzzles with several solutions, a parser is superior. That said, I think the 9 verb interface that early (but not earliest) LucasArts adventure games, more specifically Monkey Island 2, Indy Fate of Atlantis and Day Of The Tentacle, was a great in-between model that provided choice without being too complex.

Adventure games today comes with point'n'click inteface (mostly). I can't see King's Quest Telltale having text parser, so I secretly hope for something along the line of the last couple of King's Quest games (not counting KQVIII). Heck, I'd like it if for once the inventory wouldn't be hidden away from us all of the time, like all the modern adventure game do. I want something like the system in the Legend of Kyrandia quests, which really is exactly the way most do it today, but without hiding the inventory from sight.

But since everything has to be cinematic, it's a miracle we even get to see the mouse cursor nowadays.

If I remember correctly, Scott Murphy (SQ creator) wanted Space Quest IV to have a parser system for it's freedom and was against the point and click method. That's probably why SQ4 and SQ6 have a smell and taste icon.

You'll never see a parser game again, if for no other reason then it would make it very difficult to port it to the home consoles or the iPhone.

Yes, as I understand it, Ken Williams basically asked (and then, when Scott said no, ordered) him to convert the game to point-and-click.

Ken didn't ask. He gave Scott the option. And then after he chose parser he went behind his back and forced it P&C anyway, according to Scott.

Actually, SQ6 doesn't have them either. The only two games that have them are SQ4 and SQ1VGA.

Even though SQ6 didn't explicitly have a "Taste" or "Smell" command, if you used the "Mouth" command on random things, you would get Gary Owens telling you how something tasted or smelled.

That's not exactly the same. The idea was to have a lot more interactions than were possible with the "standard five" P&C icons (walk, look, use, talk, inv). Scott wanted to carry over the feel of the parser where you could type anything you wanted and the game would respond.

True, it was interesting to try them on various things and see what would happen, even if it meant death (like on the pool of water/acid in the caves of SQ1VGA).

I think parser could make a comeback as an alternative method of control. Of course, it'd take a real enthusiast to do all the extra work required for it.